Chapter 16.—The Knowledge Both of
Language and Things is Helpful for the Understanding of Figurative
Expressions.

23. In the case of figurative
signs, again, if ignorance of any of them should chance to bring
the reader to a stand-still, their meaning is to be traced partly
by the knowledge of languages, partly by the knowledge of things.
The pool of Siloam, for example, where the man whose eyes our Lord
had anointed with clay made out of spittle was commanded to wash,
has a figurative significance, and undoubtedly conveys a secret
sense; but yet if the evangelist had not interpreted that name,17931793John ix. 7. a meaning
so important would lie unnoticed. And we cannot doubt that, in
the same way, many Hebrew names which have not been interpreted by
the writers of those books, would, if any one could interpret them,
be of great value and service in solving the enigmas of
Scripture. And a number of men skilled in that language have
conferred no small benefit on posterity by explaining all these
words without reference to their place in Scripture, and telling us
what Adam means, what Eve, what Abraham, what Moses, and also the
names of places, what Jerusalem signifies, or Sion, or Sinai, or
Lebanon, or Jordan, and whatever other names in that language we
are not acquainted with. And when these names have been
investigated and explained, many figurative expressions in
Scripture become clear.

24. Ignorance of things, too,
renders figurative expressions obscure, as when we do not know the
nature of the animals, or minerals, or plants, which are frequently
referred to in Scripture by way of comparison. The fact so well
known about the serpent, for example, that to protect its head it
will present its whole body to its assailants—how much light it
throws upon the meaning of our Lord’s command, that we should be
wise as serpents;17941794Matt. x. 16. that is to say, that for the sake
of our head, which is Christ, we should willingly offer our body to
the persecutors, lest the Christian faith should, as it were, be
destroyed in us, if to save the body we deny our God! Or again,
the statement that the serpent gets rid of its old skin by
squeezing itself through a narrow hole, and thus acquires new
strength—how appropriately it fits in with the direction to
imitate the wisdom of the serpent, and to put off the old man, as
the apostle says, that we may put on the new;17951795Eph. iv. 22. and to put it off, too, by coming
through a narrow place, according to the saying of our Lord,
“Enter ye in at the strait gate!”17961796Matt. vii. 13. As, then, knowledge of the
nature of the serpent throws light upon many metaphors which
Scripture is accustomed to draw from that animal, so ignorance of
other animals, which are no less frequently mentioned by way of
comparison, is a very great drawback to the reader. And so in
regard to minerals and plants: knowledge of the carbuncle, for
instance, which shines in the dark, throws light upon many of the
dark places in books too, where it is used metaphorically; and
ignorance of the beryl or the adamant often shuts the doors of
knowledge. And the only reason why we find it easy to understand
that perpetual peace is indicated by the olive branch which the
dove brought with it when it returned to the ark,17971797Gen. viii. 11. is that we
know both that the smooth touch of olive oil is not easily spoiled
by a fluid of another kind, and that the tree itself is an
evergreen. Many, again, by reason of their ignorance of hyssop,
not knowing the virtue it has in cleansing the lungs, nor the power
it is said to have of piercing rocks with its roots, although it is
a small and insignificant plant, cannot make out why it is said,
“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.”17981798Ps. li. 7.

25. Ignorance of numbers, too,
prevents us from understanding things that are set down in
Scripture in a figurative and mystical way. A candid mind, if I
may so speak, cannot but be anxious, for example, to ascertain what
is meant by the fact that Moses and Elijah, and our Lord Himself,
all fasted for forty days.17991799Ex. xxiv. 18; 1
Kings xix. 8; Matt. iv. 2. And except by knowledge of and
reflection upon the number, the difficulty of explaining the figure
involved in this action cannot be got over. For the number
contains ten four times, indicating the knowledge of all things,
and that knowledge interwoven with time. For both the diurnal and
the annual revolutions are accomplished in periods numbering four
each; the diurnal in the hours of the morning, the noontide, the
evening, and the night; the annual in the spring, summer, autumn,
and winter months. Now while we live in time, we must abstain and
fast from all joy in time, for the sake of that eternity in which
we wish to live; al
544
though by the passage of time
we are taught this very lesson of despising time and seeking
eternity. Further, the number ten signifies the knowledge of the
Creator and the creature, for there is a trinity in the Creator;
and the number seven indicates the creature, because of the life
and the body. For the life consists of three parts, whence also
God is to be loved with the whole heart, the whole soul, and the
whole mind; and it is very clear that in the body there are four
elements of which it is made up. In this number ten, therefore,
when it is placed before us in connection with time, that is, when
it is taken four times we are admonished to live unstained by, and
not partaking of, any delight in time, that is, to fast for forty
days. Of this we are admonished by the law personified in Moses,
by prophecy personified in Elijah, and by our Lord Himself, who, as
if receiving the witness both of the law and the prophets, appeared
on the mount between the other two, while His three disciples
looked on in amazement. Next, we have to inquire in the same way,
how out of the number forty springs the number fifty, which in our
religion has no ordinary sacredness attached to it on account of
the Pentecost, and how this number taken thrice on account of the
three divisions of time, before the law, under the law, and under
grace, or perhaps on account of the name of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, and the Trinity itself being added over and above, has
reference to the mystery of the most Holy Church, and reaches to
the number of the one hundred and fifty-three fishes which were
taken after the resurrection of our Lord, when the nets were cast
out on the right-hand side of the boat.18001800John xxi. 11. And in the same way, many other
numbers and combinations of numbers are used in the sacred
writings, to convey instruction under a figurative guise, and
ignorance of numbers often shuts out the reader from this
instruction.

26. Not a few things, too, are
closed against us and obscured by ignorance of music. One man,
for example, has not unskillfully explained some metaphors from the
difference between the psaltery and the harp.18011801Ps. xxxiii. 2. And it is a question which it is
not out of place for learned men to discuss, whether there is any
musical law that compels the psaltery of ten chords to have just so
many strings; or whether, if there be no such law, the number
itself is not on that very account the more to be considered as of
sacred significance, either with reference to the ten commandments
of the law (and if again any question is raised about that number,
we can only refer it to the Creator and the creature), or with
reference to the number ten itself as interpreted above. And the
number of years the temple was in building, which is mentioned in
the gospel18021802John ii. 20.—viz.,
forty-six—has a certain undefinable musical sound, and when
referred to the structure of our Lord’s body, in relation to
which the temple was mentioned, compels many heretics to confess
that our Lord put on, not a false, but a true and human body. And
in several places in the Holy Scriptures we find both numbers and
music mentioned with honor.